Cow died

[rrblack78]

Why would a cow die 6 days after calving? I googled it and number 1 reason was infection but she had no other visable signs of illness. We seen her walking around, nursing at 7am this morning and found her already dead at 11:30. Nothing to point to a reason why. My niece(owner of the cow)and her mom did not want to cut her open so my husband had a friend come bury her. Aside from a delayed start to nursing(about 8 hours)everything seemed fine.

 

[idalee]

As the uterus begins to contract following calving and under the influence of oxytocin from nursing,  a middle uterine artery that was damaged during calving can pull away from the uterus because it gets stretched.    This is not common but does occur in perhaps one out of several thousand cows.  They will bleed out rapidly into the abdomen with no outward evidence of hemorrhage.  Whenever I see a cow with this history,  that is almost always the cause. 

 

[Spencer10218]

What would be able to stop this or is it terminal

 

[rrblack78]

Wow...would there have been any hope of saving her if we had known? They took some pictures to show the vet but I did not look at them. There wasn't much to see but he said sepsis, or a uterine rupture or possibly a retained twin. He had seen them all.  After they got her off the ground  to bury her there was some blood on the ground under her but not enough to say she bled to death just she was bleeding. I was the one who found her but the other cows would not let me get very close to really look. All of the possibilties the vet suggested seem like they would have some warning signs something wasn't right but she seemed ok and was taking care of her baby until a couple of hours before death.

 

[idalee]

The only definitive diagnostic is a necropsy in which you would find an abdomen full of blood.    Alternately,  if it were not hemorrhage from a damaged uterine artery,  an necropsy would probably determine the cause of death.  That is why it is always a good idea to necropsy a cow who dies unexpectedly.    If rupture of a uterine artery is the cause,  there is no way of prevention or treatment because events happen too rapidly. 

 

[rrblack78]

I wish they would have had a necropsy but it wasn't my call. We brought her and her sister to our house to calve mostly so our kids could be part of it and maybe do some cow calf pair shows. We had plans to use these two in the future as recipient cows. She was sharing close quarters with our show calves and that is enough to keep me up at night worrying if it could have been something contagious.

 

[Lucky_P]

As previously noted, a necropsy examination would possibly have provided an answer.

6 days out...ruptured uterine artery unlikely; not unheard of, but not high on my list of possibilities.
Retained twin &/or metritis bad enough to kill the cow...I'd have anticipated you noticing her not feeling well, walking with tail up, discharge and bad odor...

Depending upon age/breed/milking ability...hypocalcemia(milk fever) would be a consideration...as would hypomagnesemia (grass/winter tetany) - I've been seeing some cattle deaths here at the diagnostic lab, due to grass tetany for the past month or so.

Have seen pneumonia due to a really hot strain of Mannheimia haemolytica kill cows with what appear to be no premonitory signs noted by the owner -'she looked fine last night, found dead this morning, at the hay feeder.'

Hope you have no more problems, but if another one kicks over... have your vet do a necropsy, or get the carcass to the nearest veterinary diagnostic laboratory ASAP.

 

[rrblack78]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I was going to ask about milk fever...had a dog die from it as a kid. The vet said it was hypocalcemia or eclampsia(milk fever) in dogs. I was wondering if cows could get it too.

 

[pweaver]

Not sure where you are or your winter feeding management, but do you know cattle can get grass tetany in a dry lot, dry hay feeding environment.  Just like lush spring grass low in magnesium, processed forage can be deficient in magnesium and cause grass tetany.  We learned this a few years ago when we came home from being gone about 3 hours and found a cow 3 weeks post-partum thrashing around on the ground.  Before we could get to the vet and back home with medication, she was gone.  Our vet was sure we had her on grass, it was April 11, but we did not.  They were still in dry lot and on hay.  After some internet research I found winter grass tetany, or feedlot tetany, is not that uncommon.  And it makes sense.  If your forage is low in mag., it would cause the same problem.  We now feed mineral with high magnesium from November through May.

 

[rrblack78]

They were back on show feed ration, heifer grower, a mineral supplument, a round bale of local hay and we have 3 mineral blocks out.